"It’s fair to smash up someone’s future but not to smash up someone’s lobby," says UK journalist Laurie Penny of the student protests in London last week."It’s fair to smash up someone’s future but not to smash up someone’s lobby," says UK journalist Laurie Penny of the student protests in London last week, now being branded as "violent" and "out of control" by the press. But aside from one person who dropped a fire extinguisher off a building, Penny points out in her recent piece, the protests were free of violence against people, and property damage needs to be put in the proper perspective.
Penny joins The Nation on Grit TV via Skype from London, where she attended the protests and covered them for the New Statesman, to provide some perspective on the misunderstood events—and to fill us in on why they may be only the beginning for the growing student movement in the UK.
The Nation on GRIT TV is a weekly video collaboration between The Nation and GRIT TV with Laura Flanders. Watch for Monday briefings, Wednesday commentaries, weekend conversations and more at TheNation.com. For full half-hour episodes of The Nation on GRIT TV, or local television air times visit www.grittv.org.
